Wine, food, fun and even some music on menu at area wine bars

The Annapolis restaurant world has a funny way of following its own trends.

Restaurants here tend to open in groups — one Irish restaurant opens, three more follow within short order. We finally get a Thai restaurant, and soon we have three.

While some might see this trending as a negative, it can really be a boon to our small city — offering multiple options for the many differing tastes within our citizenry.

Nowhere is that more important than within the wine bars that have proliferated over the past few years. They offer something for everyone — those who like small and intimate spaces or those who prefer larger sites, downtown or around town, younger scenes or older ones, live music or a focus on conversation.

All share a few things, though — great wine lists, innovative menus, outside dining and a fun and comfortable alternative from the traditional Annapolis bar scene. Pouring fantastic wines by the glass is another hallmark of all the wine bars in Annapolis, though the selection varies greatly at each. Most importantly, though, they’ve not only offered a destination for wine fans, they’ve upped the bar for wine lists at area restaurants by educating and expanding palates around town.

Grapes Wine Bar

Tucked away in the Clock Tower Place shopping center off Forest Drive, next to the Wine Cellars of Annapolis, Grapes Wine Bar is a well-kept and much-loved secret among its fans.

The raves from patrons, though, mean they might be right on track with this low-key approach to marketing.

“Our focus is on making the customers happy with the quality of the food and the quality of the service,” Day said. “We offer a cutting-edge wine list, by the bottle and, more importantly, by the glass, and have strived to come up with a menu that pairs well, is wine friendly and is rooted in a traditional format.”

They typically pour between 40 and 50 wines by the glass — everything from, on the day I visited, a $7 New Zealand sauvignon blanc to an amazingly priced Chateau Montelena (a wine that typically retails for much more and is hardly ever seen on a “by the glass” list).

Highlighting wines that are more commonly sold by the bottle, not the glass, is a key aspect of Grapes’ philosophy, as is opening up the world of wine, making it easy to learn, taste and try.

“Whenever you are dealing with wine, there is a propensity to come off as aloof,” Day said. “We say to our customers, ‘It doesn’t matter how expensive, how many points — if you like it, you like it.’ ”

“I appreciate the ambiance, enjoy the food, and most importantly, love the service,” said Gretchen Saval of Annapolis. “We usually are waited on by the same server, who is awesome ... always has great wine recommendations, and gives us multiple tastes.”

Grapes also offers flights of wine, allowing you to try a variety at a reasonable price. Recently, a flight of Rothschild Bordeaux was offered — a ‘78, an ’80 and an ’81 — an opportunity to taste three wines you might otherwise never get to try.

In Grapes’ kitchen, chef Vicky Fabian, trained in the French style, focuses on providing simple, classic cooking at easy-on-the-wallet prices. Much of the best on the menu is made completely in house — including the patè, the flatbreads, the hand-cut, fried-in-duck-fat frites, the soups, most of the desserts and much more.

One of the favorites on the menu is the French Garde Manger board — a selection of fantastic cheeses, assorted charcuterie and that amazing patè. Anything on the menu with a sauce is also a must try.

Fabian gets many of her herbs, as well as some of the tomatoes, peppers and other veggies, from the small container garden behind the restaurant.

Grapes is open from 5 to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, from 5 to 11 p.m. Friday and from 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday. Happy hour is from 5 to 6:30 p.m. weekdays. It has a symbiotic relationship with the Wine Cellar next door — any wine you enjoy at the bar can be purchased from the store — as well as items from My Butcher & More on the other side — they source meats from the same provider. Grapes offers indoor and outdoor seating.

Vin 909

Eastport has long been known for its restaurants — from classic pub to the finest steak house, you can find it all in the peninsula across Spa Creek.

A little more than a year ago, Vin 909 moved into a little house on Bay Ridge Avenue (the former home of The Wild Orchid Cafe). With a fantastic outdoor patio — heated in the winter, fans in the summer, with a large and fun community table — and two street-side tables on the front porch, Vin offers the most expansive outdoor seating of the wine bars in town.

Speaking of that term — wine bar — Vin is better known as a wine café — as chef Justin Moore points out: “We try to be more than just a wine bar — we haven’t defined ourselves as a wine bar because we don’t want to scare people away with that term.”

“It’s just as much about Justin’s food as it is the wine, which keeps people coming back,” owner Alex Manfredonia said.

And come back they do. It is not uncommon to find yourself enjoying a glass of wine or two as you wait for a table to open, especially if you come at a peak time. Fortunately, Vin’s kitchen stays open until 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 9 or 10 during the week, so those who don’t want to wait either know to come on the early side or after the rush is over.

If you do go at a peak time, it’s well worth the wait and you can start in on that fantastic wine list. Organized primarily into three categories — $6 (value is not a dirty word), $8 (I got class, I just don’t want to pay for it) and $12 (damn the economy, let’s drink wine), the format takes the guessing game out and lets customers choose based on the wine they want to drink.

If you’re not sure what you want to drink, the staff is helpful at making suggestions, and certain wines in each category are starred as Alex’s picks.

The wines are, as noted in the menu, the best wines you’ve never heard of. Part of the fun at Vin is exploring the unknown and realizing that you’re really in love with that Italian Cortese — who knew? New on the list is a rosé list — a perfect opportunity to discover that all pink wines are not the same.

For the non-wine drinkers in your party, there is an extensive beer selection featuring local and national craft beers, on draft and in bottles. The homemade lemonade is a winner as well.

From the brick-oven-baked and wood-chip-smoked pizzas to the paninis to the shared plates, the menu hits all the right notes. With a focus on locally sourced and grown products, the menu changes based on the season, the week and what’s in stock — with a few classics remaining on the list.

The basic No-Skimp Basil Margherita pizza is a steal at $9, extremely popular and topped with the house-made mozzarella. That mozzarella also shows up as a shared plate — the fresh, warm cheese, with heirloom tomatoes, is a revelation. A popular shared plate at the moment is the Dayboat Sea Scallops, featuring scallops fished daily off Ocean City.

Many of Moore’s herbs are grown in the garden alongside the restaurant, including nepitella, an Italian herb put to great use on the White House pizza.

“I love that their menu is vegetarian-vegan friendly,” neighbor and regular patron Sarah Rees said. “The staff is super knowledgeable and very friendly. We always find a bottle that is great and affordable and the food is excellent.”

Vin 909 is at 909 Bay Ridge Ave. Parking is available on the street and in the lot adjacent to the restaurant. It is open from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, from 11:30 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday, and from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday. From noon to 3 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, they offer a $5 wine by the glass.

Red Red Wine

When Red Red Wine opened on Main Street a year ago last weekend, it was an exciting day for everyone.

Red Red Wine brought something new and different to downtown and has continued to do so. Red Red Wine differentiates itself from the other wine bars in town with its full bar and more extensive menu.

“Annapolis is great — every (wine bar) has their own area, their own little niche, which is nice,” owner Lisa Bolter said.

The goal at Red Red Wine is “to make wines more approachable, so that everyone that walks through the door feels comfortable,” Bolter said.

They focus on “getting a gauge from the customer as to what they like, and try to match their palate, but then also offer something a little different — to help broaden their horizons when it comes to wine.”

Red Red Wine offers 46 wines by the glass, and a number of additional labels by the bottle. All the bottles are available for retail sale — and the price you pay in the restaurant is what you would pay to take them home — no “astronomical restaurant wine markup,” simply a $10 corkage fee to drink it in-house.

Another area where Red Red Wine distinguishes itself is the flight selection — five or six different flights at any time, each featuring something unique — right now they include a pinot noir flight, a bubbly flight and a rare (or geeky) wine flight.

Red Red Wine also offers draft wines — they have four on tap at any time and this new trend in wine has many fans in Annapolis. It’s a greener way of drinking wine (no bottles) and it allows the bar to keep the wines at the perfect temperature.

Comfortable and inviting, open for lunch and dinner, with a small dining area out on Main Street and plenty of space inside — at the bar and at tables, Red Red Wine is more than just a wine bar. With a full bar, all beverage palates are appeased and it’s on to the food.

Red Red Wine’s cheese board is one of the most popular items on the menu, as it is a choose-your-own-cheese board. They offer suggestions on combos and on wine pairings, but the rest is up to you.

Most wine bars stick to a small plates menu, but that is not the case at Red Red Wine. “It was important to us to have a full menu — I like to eat,” Bolter said. “So we put an emphasis on big salads, paninis, main dishes — a menu that offers something for everyone.”

Happy hour, from 3 to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, features some of the starters as well as a $5 red and white of the day and Sangria. The best part, however, comes on Sunday when, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., they offer their New Orleans Jazz Brunch. Beignets, café au lait, crawfish etoufèe, po-boys and more join mimosas, sazerac and a fantastic Cajun Mary for a menu straight out of the bayou.

Live music is another aspect that sets Red Red Wine apart from the other wine bars in town — it’s the only one to offer live music. The music schedule, which isn’t consistent but consistently features great local talent, can be found online.

Red Red Wine, at 189-B Main Street, is open 11 a.m. to midnight Monday and Tuesday, 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Wednesday through Saturday and 9 a.m. to midnight Sunday.

Crush

Located on West Street next to the Loews Annapolis Hotel, Crush is the grandfather of wine bars in Annapolis. Crush, and its predecessor The Purple Tooth, paved the way for wine bars in Annapolis, to the happiness of oenophiles all around the area.

Crush is in the tradition of a European wine bar, with a small food menu and large wine list, focusing on the unique and esoteric, with an enomatic wine server on hand to allow for the tasting of wines not normally sold by the glass. Crush focuses on customers who know their wines, or at least their palates. Like Red Red Wine, it has a retail license, so if you like a wine you try from the menu, you can purchase it to take home.

In addition to the wines on the enomatic — which can change throughout the week — Crush also offers 10 to 12 wines by the glass and a few more by the carafe. It also offers a few flights that allow you to taste and explore wines from different countries.

The specialty meat and cheese platters are top sellers at Crush. Crush is known for its different bruschettas and the brie with port brown sugar glaze on the starter menu, as well as the osso bucco and short rib on the entrée menu. With a lounge area full of comfortable couches, Crush is often packed on weekends with groups just hanging out and enjoying some fine wines.

Crush is at 114 West St. and is open from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, from 4 p.m. to midnight Saturday and from 4 to 10 p.m. Sunday.

Visit crushwinehouse.com for more information and to see the menu, and stay tuned to the Out & About column in Entertainment to learn about some big changes coming to Crush in the next few months.

We've upgraded our reader commenting system. You must register to comment on stories. Accounts on the old Capital Gazette website no longer work, so you'll need to sign up for a new account. Learn more about the new features.

Capital Gazette encourages civil dialogue related to our stories; you must register and log-in to our site in order to participate. We reserve the right to remove any user and to delete comments that violate our Terms of Service. By commenting, you agree to these terms. Please flag inappropriate comments.